updated 10:45 am EST, Fri January 9, 2009

Needham on Palm Pre

Palm's new Pre smartphone borrows heavily from the Apple iPhone, but shows a lot of promise, writes Needham analyst Charlie Wolf. Palm announced the Pre at a major CES event on Thursday, revealing a device with features signature to the iPhone, such as an accelerometer and multi-touch controls. Wolf argues that the phone may in fact be better in some regards, particularly in terms of its ability to sync contacts and calendars across numerous devices.

The Pre also relies on a new "card" metaphor for its interface, which lets users quickly switch between entire applications in the same way that Safari switches between browser tabs. Pre owners should also have advantages such as a physical keyboard, and being able to launch apps from anywhere in the phone's OS, instead of having to return to a home screen.

Wolf comments however that Palm does not appear to be interested in competing with the media functions of the iPhone, or the e-mail capabilities of RIM's BlackBerry phones. He suggests that the Pre is instead targeted at people buying their first smartphone, though this may still put it in competition with the iPhone.

The Pre's biggest limitation may in fact be the initial choice of carrier, as it will be an exclusive to Sprint during launch. Wolf describes Sprint as "fast fading," and proposes that if the Pre is to become a real success, it will need to have models for other carriers such as Verizon and AT&T.

Is this anything like HyperCard? If so, I would hardly call it "new". For those that don't know, HyperCard was released in 1984 or 1985 and was the inspiration for the WWW. It was a complete object-oriented system with message passing and object scripting akin to JavaScript and the DOM in modern browsers.

I believe accelerometers have been around much longer than your Canon digital camera. I'm not sure who originated the idea of using them as a control device, but I suspect it is an old idea. And Palm as the oroginator of touch screen PDAs?!?!? How do you figure that?

I suspect you are a careful enough reader to have noted that he never claimed Apple "invented the World Wide Web". Honestly I'm not sure what people expect to gain from this line of reasoning. I guess you thought you were being cute.

Testudo always thinks he's being cute. Sometimes, as though by accident, he makes a salient point. Most of the time, however, he comes across as one of those people who think they know it all. He also seems to take offense at most things pro-Apple, no matter what the context.

I know Canon didn't invent the accelerometer. It was a joke. I was merely pointing out its widespread use.

Not sure if they were the first, but they have certainly been using a touch screen for a lot longer than Apple. Since at least 2002 with the Tungsten, but I think they had several prior (I'm not a palm expert). They were certainly well known for their touch screen approach.

Although it wasn't multi-touch or as advanced as apple's touch screen, it's reasonable to believe that a more advanced touchscreen was inevitable evolution... You disagree?

For a struggling company, I think Palm deserves a little credit for the Pre. I'm not a palm fan. I've never owned one.... but the hardware and OS look pretty damn good.

I think what you mean is that "His points are mostly salient. But I discount any point that offers an opposing view to mine."

Most of the time, however, he comes across as one of those people who think they know it all.

Bah! I don't know it all. No one does. It is impossible. But I know more than most would grant me credit for.

He also seems to take offense at most things pro-Apple, no matter what the context.

No, I take offense at items that are "pro" or "anti" anyone for no reason other than personal bias. The "If it was made by apple, its a thing of beauty, and made by anyone else, and its fugly" stuff. Or the "Its from MS, so it must suck!" (I wonder how many people who bash vista have even used it at all).

But I also take offense at anything that would be pro-MS or anti-Apple for the same reason (the Epic-fail idiot, or the 12-year-old kid who posted the same stupid post about the keynote on every article). But everyone else takes offense too, so it is lost in the shuffle.

Of course, on these sites, if you dare question Apple, you're considered a troll and with some anti-Apple agenda (which would be foolish, as my Apple stock has already taken a big hit in the last year).

everything palm said it does pans out, I'll be getting one. Been a fan for years. Now if apple would sell the iphone through other carriers, I would get an iphone. AT&T sucks and would never go back. Apple looses on its choice of carrier!

[So, if anything, we now have to give Berners-Lee props for inspiring hypercard.]

Doubtful. HyperCard was a total embodiment, not just hypertext but a complete environment- and BTW Steve Jobs had little to do with Bill Atkinson's invention, which was a skunk works item which adapted a Smalltalk-like scripting language, and the first Mosaic browser stole heavily from it with its Home button, Next Previous arrows, et al.

Yeah. HyperCard was cool, and its current incarnations prove it- Revolution, SuperCard, etc. Can't hurt the Palm OS to adopt some of that.